Jun

Cafe Fresh Closed?

A Siberian location and even chillier service appears to have put yet another Morningside Heights business on ice.

Café Fresh seems to be the latest victim of These Economic Times. With its windows covered over with butcher paper and all signs removed for the exterior, the brusque coffeeshop looks vacant from the sidewalk. Some patrons also report the café closing unusually early Saturday at noon, which may have been a very last last call.

Strangely enough, a Craigslist ad was spotted last October offering for sale a coffeeshop that matched Café Fresh’s description. Though managers denied the ad was their doing, a little Internet wheelin’-and-dealin’ may not have been such a bad idea in retrospect.

A [former] patron tells Bwog that the café may have succumbed to its ongoing battle with the NYC Department of Health. Records show Café Fresh pulled an Amir’s back in February after inspectors slapped 47 points worth of violations on the coffeeshop (the average score is 16), reopening once it passed re-inspection with a 5-point score. But that’s only the latest in a series of stomach-churning inspections for Café Fresh—it was shuttered in 2008 and 2007 for similar violations, which include lack of soap, improper food storage, and employees not washing their hands after using the bathroom.

The location isn't "far" for everyone. Columbia spans pretty far north of 116th street. And they NEVER had signs on the exterior of the building. Only signs in the window and a mobile sign outside of the shop.

I will agree that the service sucked and no one will miss them. Just an awful, awful place.

The violations don't surprise me at all. The one guy with the hair that looked dyed in kool-aid was probably the employee who never washed his hands.

I thought the food was good and cheap but they were assholes all the time and once I saw them make my sandwich with bare hands . . . the guy making it literally grabbed the meat, cheese, & veggies and stuck it on the grill all with his hands. The lady who works there bitched me out when I told her what I saw and requested a new sandwich.

do they know the employees didn't wash their hands after using the bathroom?

i mean the "employees must wash hands" signs are usually in the bathrooms, not next to a sink in the food preparation area. did they go by word alone? the workers were dumb enough to admit to that? i am genuinely curious.

If bad service was a guarantee of a M'side Heights establishment going out of business, wouldn't Morton Williams have been shuttered long ago? I guess it is location, location, location, but don't we deserve better?

service was AWFUL! i once ordered a bagel, and the woman spent 15 minutes yelling at her employee who didn't speak english, in english, before she realized that she had forgotten my order. first and last time i ever went there.